Fast wavefront sensing for X-ray optics with an alternating speckle tracking technique

Area of Science:

• Physics
• Optics
• Materials Science

Background:

• Advancements in accelerator technology drive the development of synchrotron radiation and X-ray free electron laser (XFEL) sources.
• In-situ wavefront sensing is crucial for delivering high-quality X-ray beams.
• Speckle-based scanning offers high spatial resolution and sensitivity but suffers from long data acquisition times.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel, fast wavefront sensing technique for X-ray beamlines.
• To overcome the limitations of existing speckle-based methods, particularly data acquisition time.
• To enable simultaneous horizontal and vertical wavefront measurement.

Main Methods:

• Development of a novel speckle-based approach named Alternating Speckle Tracking (AST).
• Implementation within a conventional beamline setup, avoiding additional hardware.
• Simultaneous derivation of horizontal and vertical wavefront information by diagonal movement of the speckle generator.

Main Results:

• Alternating Speckle Tracking (AST) achieves fast wavefront sensing.
• The technique provides valuable wavefront information for time-resolved applications.
• Simultaneous measurement of both horizontal and vertical wavefronts is demonstrated.

Conclusions:

• AST offers a significant improvement for wavefront sensing in X-ray applications.
• The method is compatible with existing beamline setups, reducing implementation barriers.
• AST is expected to become a widely adopted technique within the synchrotron radiation and XFEL community.